Once you crack the media myths surrounding him, it’s unlikely voters are going to go for an angry, unstable, hypocritical warmonger.

John McCain the GOP Nominee? Bring Him On!
By Joshua Holland

According to the latest Washington Post poll, there’s been a dramatic shift towards John McCain following his victory in the Florida GOP primary, and he now leads Mitt Romney by 24 points nationwide. With a number of winner-take all primaries on the Republican side, he has a very good shot at wrapping up the nomination on February 5. It looks like conservatives — with a few raving-mad, mouth-breathing exceptions — have gone through denial, anger, bargaining and depression and come finally to accept their insubordinate nominee. Modern conservatives are the philosophical heirs of the monarchists of a previous era; despite months of grumbling, most will, ultimately, rally around the king come November.

McCain is also the candidate most Democrats and progressives have feared facing in the general election. According to RealClearPolitics’ rolling average of head-to-head polls, McCain would beat Clinton today by a slim margin of just under 2 percent and would edge out Obama by a razor-thin half-point. Eight months out — and months before the first debate between the nominees — these data mean little, but they are causing some concern on the left.

McCain is, however, an extremely weak candidate. The senator’s been showing his age throughout the primaries, and there is still a long and exhausting slog ahead. His wooden delivery of stump speeches — sometimes offered while staring at his notes — and some incidents in which he’s appeared “confused” — he referred to Vladimir Putin as the president of Germany — are vulnerabilities for a 71 year-old candidate. Most people still haven’t had a chance to see and hear from these candidates at length this cycle, and while we all decry the fact that people often make political decisions based on the candidates’ mannerisms or appearances rather than on the issues, in a race against a cranky, old-looking and somewhat out-of-it McCain, the War of Appearances is likely to be won handily by either of the potential Dem nominees.

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